17-letter words containing a, c, e, s, p, r
- clumber (spaniel) — a short-legged spaniel with a heavy body and a thick coat of straight, white hair marked with yellow or orange
- colour separation — the division of a coloured original into cyan, magenta, yellow, and black so that plates may be made for print reproduction. Separation may be achieved by electronic scanning or by photographic techniques using filters to isolate each colour
- come to handgrips — to engage in hand-to-hand fighting
- company secretary — A company secretary is a person whose job within a company is to keep the legal affairs, accounts, and administration in order.
- compartmentalised — Simple past tense and past participle of compartmentalise.
- compartmentalizes — Third-person singular simple present indicative form of compartmentalize.
- compensated grade — a grade that has been reduced along a curve to offset the additional resistance due to the curve.
- complementariness — forming a complement; completing.
- complementarities — Plural form of complementarity.
- complimentariness — The state or quality of being complimentary.
- compression ratio — the ratio of the volume enclosed by the cylinder of an internal-combustion engine at the beginning of the compression stroke to the volume enclosed at the end of it
- computer graphics — the use of a computer to produce and manipulate pictorial images on a video screen, as in animation techniques or the production of audiovisual aids
- concurrent pascal — (language) An extension of a Pascal subset, Sequential Pascal, developed by Brinch Hansen in 1972-75. Concurrent Pascal was the first language to support monitors. It provided access to hardware devices through monitor calls and also supported processes and classes.
- conscript fathers — august legislators, esp Roman senators
- consolation prize — A consolation prize is a small prize which is given to a person who fails to win a competition.
- conspiracy theory — A conspiracy theory is a belief that a group of people are secretly trying to harm someone or achieve something. You usually use this term to suggest that you think this is unlikely.
- consumer sampling — a research technique in which targeted consumers are polled or tested for their receptiveness to a product or service
- contemporaneously — living or occurring during the same period of time; contemporary.
- cooperative store — a retail store owned and managed by consumer-customers who supply the capital and share in the profits by patronage dividends.
- copernican system — the theory published in 1543 by Copernicus which stated that the earth and the planets rotated around the sun and which opposed the Ptolemaic system
- corporal of horse — a noncommissioned rank in the British Household Cavalry above that of sergeant and below that of staff sergeant
- corporate sponsor — a business that sponsors a particular type of event
- corpus cavernosum — either of two masses of erectile tissue in the penis of mammals
- counter-espionage — Counter-espionage is the same as counter-intelligence.
- counterparty risk — the risk that a person who is a party to a contract will default on their obligations under that contract
- course protractor — a navigational instrument for measuring the bearing of a course as given on a chart, having a disk calibrated in degrees and an arm pivoted about the center of the disk.
- critical pressure — the pressure of a gas or the saturated vapour pressure of a substance in its critical state
- cryopreservations — the storage of blood or living tissues at extremely cold temperatures, often -196 degrees Celsius.
- cryptocrystalline — (of rocks) composed of crystals that can be distinguished individually only by the use of a polarizing microscope
- cut a person dead — to ignore a person completely
- d&o insurance — D&O insurance is a personal liability insurance that provides cover to the directors and senior executives of a company.
- dagestan republic — a constituent republic of S Russia, on the Caspian Sea: annexed from Persia in 1813; rich mineral resources. Capital: Makhachkala. Pop: 2 584 200 (2002). Area: 50 278 sq km (19 416 sq miles)
- damp-proof course — A damp-proof course is the same as a damp course.
- despotic monarchy — absolute monarchy.
- dipterocarpaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Dipterocarpaceae, a family of trees chiefly native to tropical SE Asia, having two-winged fruits. Many species yield useful timber and resins
- disrespectability — Lack of respectability.
- disruptive action — action performed by protestors, workers, etc that causes the disruption of a service
- dissociated press — [Play on "Associated Press"; perhaps inspired by a reference in the 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon "What's Up, Doc?"] An algorithm for transforming any text into potentially humorous garbage even more efficiently than by passing it through a marketroid. The algorithm starts by printing any N consecutive words (or letters) in the text. Then at every step it searches for any random occurrence in the original text of the last N words (or letters) already printed and then prints the next word or letter. Emacs has a handy command for this. Here is a short example of word-based Dissociated Press applied to an earlier version of the Jargon File: wart: A small, crocky feature that sticks out of an array (C has no checks for this). This is relatively benign and easy to spot if the phrase is bent so as to be not worth paying attention to the medium in question. Here is a short example of letter-based Dissociated Press applied to the same source: window sysIWYG: A bit was named aften /bee't*/ prefer to use the other guy's re, especially in every cast a chuckle on neithout getting into useful informash speech makes removing a featuring a move or usage actual abstractionsidered interj. Indeed spectace logic or problem! A hackish idle pastime is to apply letter-based Dissociated Press to a random body of text and vgrep the output in hopes of finding an interesting new word. (In the preceding example, "window sysIWYG" and "informash" show some promise.) Iterated applications of Dissociated Press usually yield better results. Similar techniques called "travesty generators" have been employed with considerable satirical effect to the utterances of Usenet flamers; see pseudo.
- doberman pinscher — one of a German breed of medium-sized, short-haired dogs having a black, brown, or blue coat with rusty brown markings.
- east pacific rise — a long north-south elevation of the sea floor in the E Pacific Ocean extending southward from SW Mexico to the Antarctic Ocean.
- ectoparasiticides — Plural form of ectoparasiticide.
- egyptian brackets — (programming, humour) A humourous term for K&R indent style, referring to the "one hand up in front, one down behind" pose which popular culture inexplicably associates with Egypt.
- elliptical spring — An elliptical spring is a spring that is made from two springs in the shape of elongated ovals laid cut in half and back-to-back.
- esprit d'escalier — clever repartee one thinks of too late
- factory inspector — a person who inspects factories
- fancy dress party — a party at which the guests wear fancy dress
- fiddleback spider — brown recluse spider.
- first performance — the first time that a play or concert is performed
- fourfold purchase — a tackle that is composed of a rope passed through two fourfold blocks in such a way as to provide mechanical power in the ratio of 1 to 5 or 1 to 4, depending on whether hauling is done on the running or the standing block and without considering friction. Compare tackle (def 2).
- frames per second — (unit) (fps) The unit of measurement of the frame rate of a moving image.